Bottletones

Live At the Copper Dragon

(Small Wonder Production / Lost Cross)

The most rewarding live records convey first-hand gig ambiance. Turning the volume to its highest register, the at-home listener can all but feel shoulder-jostles from fellow audience members and see multi-colored lights pan the crowd before settling on the stage up front. 

This disc offer that. And more.

If Chicago's Bottletones are known for anything, it's strapping, Rockabilly-informed Rock'n'Roll that spotlights guitar ferocity. The group can and does seize songs as opportunities to manifest lapel-grabbing ruggedness that, despite immensity, is arrestingly light on its feet.

But the group surely also enjoys repute as an engaging live attraction, one whose members are very much at ease before roaring audiences. The assuredness with which they tear off tremendous hunks of old-school rocking, and their trading of jaunty banter with fans (effectively knocking down the invisible wall), establish them as a 'can't miss' phenomenon.

Recommended: "How Long You Wanna Live, Anyway?," "Jack Rose P.I.," "When She Was Big," "Maybe Baby, Maybe Not," "Beer," "Frog Strangler," "French Curves!," "Psycho For Your Love," "Rocket 7," "Cast Iron Arm"

Video: "Jack Rose P.I." (studio version)

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The Monsters

Masks - Master tape copy - 1989

(Plasma Records)

Per Bandcamp, a mere 66 copies of this cassette were manufactured. Preserved hereon is a surly Swedish amalgam of rockabilly-gone- lunatic and coarse garage punk. The resultant product is spartan psychobilly exultant in its antisocial bearing.

Masks was the still-active band's first full-length issuance, in 1989. They oozed gutter charm and, one suspects, didn't give a toss whether they ever reached general public ears. They knew what they had was peculiar; they'd intended as much.

Collectors are advised that at this writing, only five copies from that original 66 are yet available. The group's Bandcamp page asserts that each box is "unique, handmade, numbered, and signed by [group leader] Beat-Man."

Technical details are specified on the same page: "1/4 reel-to-reel tape pure analogue transfer from the original studio recordings that were made Aug. 1988. No digital effects, level adjustments, or post-processing. You get what is on the studio tape."

Relish it for what it is: a snapshot of obstreperous misfits off the streets of Bern, ones for whom only Rock'n'Roll offered outlet. 

Recommended: "Addams Family," "Teenage Werewolf," "Real Monster Theme," "Rosemary McCoy," "Snake Out," "I Love My Car," "Psycho's What You Need," "Wild Thing"

Video: "Snake Out"

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Jesse Ray and the Carolina Catfish

Sick-N-Tired

(Onama Records)

Spirits of homegrown fashions long-prized are evoked by Jesse Ray Cahue's swaybacked six-string navigations and impressive everyman vocals (no high note seems beyond his grasp). Ambitious in intention, Jesse's solos flourish in their every effort. Quintessential Rock'n'Roll and its Blues antecedent celebrate blood fraternity, in what rises as an earthy work respectful of its hallowed lineage. No less responsible for the success of this enterprise is drummer Paul Jensen; a vibrant beat being imperative, he is clearly a man well called upon.

Recommended: "Ring for My Baby," "Beggin' and Pleadin'," "Nobody Ever Knows," "Highway Dream," "Stockings," "Wanna Be Your Man," "Too Late," "Fairweather Friend," "Sweet Like Sugar," "Sick N Tired," "Detroit City"

Video: live (1:10:49)

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Bodhi Corbett

Evelyn

(Self-issued)

No, this isn't decades-old wax recently exhumed, though it is proudly anachronistic and one might surmise as much. Styles are so liberally jumbled that only umbrella term "American Music" is sufficient. The seasoned barnstormers assembled provide robust accompaniment for star-of-the-moment Bodhi. (Blues harp and even accordian turn up and lend piquance.) The youthful singer / guitarist shines as only a natural can. His future looks bright, indeed.

Recommended: "Your Spells," "Green-Eyed Gal," "The Curse Of You," "Krazy Catherine," "Hopeless Harry," "Evelyn," "Razor Sharp"

Video: "Your Spells" (live)

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Bad Bone Stompers

Bad Bone Stomp three-track single

(Moondog Music)

Like the Howlin' Ramblers (recently reviewed here), this potent combo relies upon leash-free, expansive Blues harp to further its engagingly unpretentious Rock'n'Roll. In the span of just three songs, the Bad Bone Stompers raise up all the dancefloor-magnetism of which that music is capable. While this reviewer would stress that all involved contribute with impressive results, the guitar solos can be cited as particularly striking. Stated plainly: this is real.

Recommended: "Bad Bone Dance," "Wild Wild Love," "Please Bartender"

Video: "Bad Bone Dance" (live)

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The Babalooneys

"Winternationals" b/w "False Start" single

(Hi-Tide Recordings)

The Babalooneys are often described as a "Surf instrumental" combo. But that phrase is an umbrella under which tunes (like these direct ones) more attuned to the dragstrip also enjoy inclusion. The Babalooneys' line-up features stinging, two-guitar articulations, rock-ribbed bass, and a drummer whose blinding exertions urge the party to happy delirium. Prominent throughout and lending distinctive coloration is a blaring saxophone. It commands the celebration with stentorian aplomb and distinguishes the group from peers.

Video: "False Start" (live)

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Hi-Tide Recordings

Cromo

Están aquí

(Desorden Sonoro)

Green Day's haircuts aside, they and corporatized 'Punk' phenomena like them embody the antithesis of the fiercely-misfit style's 1970s eruption. Billy Joe Armstrong is backslapped by the rich and famous like Stiv never was.

Still, and though one need devote some effort to locate them, genuine articles yet arise. Here is one.

So speedily do most Cromo songs rocket past, and with such a surplus of youthful exuberance, that this disc's conclusion inspires appetite for future recordings. Clear in each thunderous passsage is the group's determination to realize 2023 real Punk's isolated promise of renewed defiance of the cultural mainstream. 

That they do exactly that (and with the dedication of faithful adherents) prompts the realization that true incarnations of Punk will endure long after Green Day has trod the last red carpet.

Recommended: "Me Fuĺ a Dormir," "El Hombre que Vivió Como un Gusano," "Inadaptado," "Tercera Dimensión," "Marte"

Video: "El Hombre que Vivió Como un Gusano"

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Ichi-Bons

Ich-I-Bon #1

(Hi-Tide Recordings)

Sporadic screams embellish these four examples of instrumental potency. They are fitting within the bacchanalia. Spurred by the insistent beat, guitar and bass range across territories uncharted and offer striking narration. Listeners incited to cast inhibitions to the winds may never see them again.

Recommended: "Ich-I-Bon #1," "Switchblade," "The Rockin' Gypsy," "Don't Call Me Flyface"

Video: "Ich-I-Bon #1"

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Hi-Tide Recordings

The Malpass Brothers

Lonely Street

(New Day Ent.)

The contention that Real Country is exclusive to bygone days is an untruth put about by persons who haven't heard Chris and Taylor. With the reverence of disciples, their harmonies swelling into oneness on this relaxed appeal to home folks' better natures, the duo bestows upon digital-age ears sounds so right as to verge on the sublime. If celestial harps were replaced with steel guitars...

Recommended: "Sleep When the Party's Over," "Road Of Memories," "We Can't Still Be Friends," "I've Got Her On My Mind Again." "Paying For the Dream," "Don't Cry Daddy," "The Man I Ain't," "We Don't," "Love Is a Lonely Street," "Love Slips Away"

Video: "Sleep When the Party's Over"

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Dead Boys

Younger, Louder, Snottyer

(Cleopatra Records)

Of a piece with fellow 1970s NYC punk icons the Ramones and Heartbreakers, the Dead Boys (Stiv Bators, Cheetah Chrome, Jimmy Zero, Johnny Blitz, and Jeff Magnum) tore in Rock'n'Roll a jagged gash that remains unhealed. Their energy, predisposition for spectacle, and in-concert rampages made these CBGB wretches legends in the annals of musical infamy. (Of especially identifying nature were Cheetah's feral solos.) They may have stalked stage-fronts among a rip-and-stich horde, but no peers equalled their turbulence.

Cleopatra has now reissued this rare 1980s French disc. Featured is the original and appropriately crude mix, in place of Genya Raven's less vehement 1977 representation. 

Recommended: "Sonic Reducer," "All This and More," "What Love Is," "Ain't Nothin' To Do," "Caught With the Meat In Your Mouth," "I Need Lunch," "High Tension Wire," "Down In Flames"

Video: "Sonic Reducer" (live)

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Dave Del Monte & the Cross County Boys

"Christmas Light Fight" b/w "Stuck In the Chimney" single

(Self-issued)

One of present-day roots-music's more prolific songwriters devotes his whimsical pen to the cherished Winter holiday. (As he did on 2019's six-track Cool Yule Boogie.) You'll find that laughing and rug-cutting are not mutually exclusive: Against vivacious rockabilly that could stand on its own, Dave relates jocular tales capable of chasing away any Christmas blues one might suffer. 

Zdigital.com.au ("Christmas Light Fight")

Zdigital.com.au ("Stuck In the Chimney")

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Hood Rats

Rockefeller Funeral E.P.

(Self-issued)

Montreal punks render Rock'n'Roll as the angry projectile it can be. As is generally the (proper) case with youthful firebrands, they absorbed the lessons handed down by leather-jacketed predeccessors and today spit them back, with the addition of their own aggressive indignation. Mindfulness to the conventions of musicality ensures that fury does not travel alone.

Recommended: "Deception," "Get Out Of My Head," "Hammer Fight," "M-39"

Video: "M-39" (live)

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The Refreshments

A Stiff One

(Wild Kingdom)

For a band to be likened to Rockpile, as have the Refreshments, is indeed high praise. And it's merited. The latter shares the former's affinity for unpretentious Rock'n'Roll that flaunts Country inclinations, hearty harmonies, and original songcraft which honors traditional musical values. But to all of that (and herein lies the crucial observation), the Refreshments add personal expressiveness;  that quality establishes them as worth remark for their own merit. Barroom piano and rousing horns join the standard (and assertive) instrumental line-up, and from their collaboration issue sounds both engaging and convivial.

Recommended: "Travellin' Light," "Somebody Else You've Known," "The Light Of Love," "Mary Jean," "Shim Sham Shimmy," "Châteauneuf-Du-Pape," "Slippery Slope," "She's Got What It Takes," "Go Go Go"

Video: "Mary Jean"

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The Sindicates

Organ Grinder

(Self-issued)

The devastational onrush with which this commences never subsides. It carries with it the dark poetry intrinsic to Psychobilly's more unsavory iterations, in whose league the Sindicates stalk. As will quickly become obvious upon experiencing this malignity, the miscreants responsible can knock down walls.

Recommended: "Gremlins," "Nosfurato," "Jack the Ripper," "Dr. Insane," "Organ Grinder," "Zombie Land"

Video: live (2:18)

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The Patina Turners

Shorebreak Five-track EP

(Rumble Road Records)

All involved contribute mightily. Indeed, it's their devotion (not to mention enviable agility) that ensures triumph. But as these are Surf instrumentals, and as that subgenre is largely a guitarist's medium, it's six-strings that are in primary evidence. As is ever the case with the finest of that fashion, these excursions are ambitious and articulated with flamboyant effervescence. Beware ocean spray.

Recommended: "Red Tide," "Blue Crab Boogie," "Bikini Moms," "Broken Leash," "Shore Break"

Video: "Red Tide" (Official full-length video)

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Mr. Fang & the Dark Tones

Movie Monster

(Fangtastic Records)

Vocalist and guitarist Jacob Campbell, aka "Mr. Fang," was blessed / cursed with dramatic flair he exploits to menacing effect. His intonations soar and swoop adventurously as he and the diabolical Darktones raise up a behemoth of rampageous instinct. Ghastliness pervades each passage as Mr. Fang's histrionically-painted portrayals disturb.

Recommended: "I Want To Be a Movie Monster," "I'm Zombiefied!," "Burn!," "Haunted Hearse"

Video: "I Want To Be a Movie Monster" (live)

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P. Paul Fenech

Happy Halloween VIII

(Mutant Rock)

October has passed. For some, though, the All Hallows Eve ethos is evergreen. Besides, the dreadful doings of P. Paul are not vulnerable to seasonal passing. For his newest, a four-track effort, the sinister father of Psychobilly creates an atmosphere that commands with dark authority. Uninitiates might aver that the languid passages tend toward self-indulgence. But such foreigners are to be ignored. They don't understand that a P. Paul album should be considered -- and appreciated -- as a whole.

Recommended: "Gimmie Gimmie Halloween," "All Hail the Pumpkin Head (King Of Halloween)," "Jager Ya," "Catch This Evil Eye"

Video: "Gimmie Gimmie Halloween"

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Darrel Higham

A Tribute To Johnny and Dorsey Burnette

(Foottapping Records)

Can anyone reading these words be unfamiliar with the Burnette brothers and their thrones in the rockabilly pantheon? World-circling star Darrel has now done with the famed pair's canon what Eddie Clendening recently accomplished with salad days Elvis: created a work that at once cherishes and vivifies with the ardor of a fan, one declaring talents of his own. Many revisit these immortal songs, but Darrel revels in their flammable essence.

Recommended: "Sweet Love On My Mind," "Lonesome Train," "Rockbilly Boogie," "Your Baby lue Eyes," "Rock Therapy," "Honey Hush," "Lonesome Tears In My Eyes," "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee," "All By Myself," "Train Kept A-Rollin'," "Tear It Up," "Please Don't Leave Me"

Video: "All By Myself"

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Howlin' Ramblers

Drunken Hearted Man

(Sleazy Records)

Dynamic, sweeping Blues harp is central to the Howlin' Ramblers' personality. Theirs is a vigorous Rock'n'Roll, one that readily acknowledges its multifarious roots and provokes listeners into fracture states. Madly spanked guitar and slap-bass coursings are bolstered by a seemingly indefatigable drummer. To write that the singer's impassioned performances are consonant with the general uproar would be accurate, albeit insufficient. Words are poor substitutes for the music, itself.

(This reviewer is awarding extra points to the band because they include images of venerated pin up Bettie Page in their videos.)

Recommended: "Drunken Hearted Man," "Upside Down, "I'm Hungry For Your Love," "Howlin' For My Darling," "Red Lips," "I'm Coming Home," "Mess a Blues," "Hard Lovin' Woman," "Alone With You," "Your Line Was Busy," "Worried About You Baby"

Video: "Drunken Hearted Man"

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Bomber Jacks

Hail To The King

(Bishopstreet Studios)

The scene depends on bands like this. No, they aren't household names, nor are they likely to rack up phenomenal sales. (Soon.) But immediately evident is their legitimacy. With each splayed note, bass slap, and concrete drumbeat comes assurance that here is rockabilly as sincerely dealt as that of any marquee icon. It makes feet move, and that's all that really matters.

Recommended: "Hail To the King,""Bonneville '52," "Gunsmoke"

Video: "Bonneville '52"

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Eddie Clendening and the Blue Ribbon Boys

Shake, Rattle, and Blue Moon!

(Custom Recording Co.)

As I'm sure Eddie himself would rush to acknowledge, no revivalist could equal The King. And that truth should dissuade most aspirants. But Eddie comes so close as to nearly scare. Aided by prodigious Blue Ribbon Boys Jacob Woodside and Jonny Bowler, and employing the same techniques and equipment that made Sam Phillips legendary, the Ed Norton-lookalike acquits himself impressively on Elvis's "lost songs" from 1954-1955 -- days when rockabilly's country aspect was in manifest aspect.

Some might argue the time machine hasn't been invented. They haven't heard this record. 

Recommended: "Tennessee Saturday Night," "I've Got a Woman," "Little Mama," "Maybelline," "Tweedle Dee," "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," "Hearts Of Stone," "Tiger Man," "Money Honey," "How Do You Think I Feel?"

Video: Promo

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Custom Recording Co.

Dogwood & the Shakers

s/t

(Self-issued)

Proficient associates at his elbow, singer / multi-instrumentalist Alexander Wood hit the studio and rendered this robust effort, one that captures time-honored Rock'n'Roll and Blues in their more bullish dispositions. His remarkable guitar rampagings would surely leave behind lesser players. Those assembled, though, distinguish themselves by not only meeting his challenge head on but blazing their own glories.

Recommended: "I'd Rather Live In a Honky Tonk," "She's Gone," "Left For Dead," "Red Hot," "Goodbye Anyways"

Video: live (47:47 Audio starts two minutes in.)

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Pete Berwick

The Damage Is Done

(Self-issued)

Various scribes have assigned to Pete the designation "Cowpunk pioneer." I wouldn't. Not because it's not true (it emphatically is), but because it makes him sound aged. Whereas this 2022 document asserts his vitality. He uses loud, galloping guitars and urgent percussive drive as propellant for his own defiant, drawled voicings. Indeed, Pete commands with a swaggering brashness that only the seasoned can pull off. The pioneer is still making dirt fly.

Recommended: "She Ain't Got Me," "Finger Down My Throat," "The Damage Is Done," "Timeclock On the Wall," "You'll Get Used To It," "Ghost Tears," "There You Go Again," "Don't Know How," "Haunted Heart," "Fool In Love"

Video: "She Ain't Got Me"

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ZED

Wrecking Machine

(Self-issued)

"Our songs are about science fiction, horror, some funny topics, and an occasional serious topic," singer Bill Lear told Quad Cities-based Echo, in October. "We sound a little like the Cramps, Reverend Horton Heat, and the Dead Kennedys."

That last gives indication of the band's touchstones. Many attempt to attain those iconic groups' statuses, a goal so ambitious as to usually be unrealistic. But, as the saw holds, the reward lies in the journey, not arrival.

ZED wreaks pugnacious Rock'n'Roll that has its twisted roots in both Punk and Psychobilly, with informative input from orthodox Rockabilly. Their efforts bespeak nimble muscularity; no unfocused blasts to be found. Self-penned material bombards in audacious fashion, but is dealt in judicious design. 

"Our live shows are full of energy an fun," Lear told Echo. "We play hard and fast, and people can tell we're having fun." 

Recommended: "Cemetery Girl," "Zombo," "Psychomachia," "Run Run Run," "Psycho Zed," "Rockabilly Psychobilly Surfabilly," "Death Race 2000"

Video: "Run Run Run"

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The Brains

Satana Tarantula

(Cleopatra Records)

Cleopatra merits commendation for reissuing (on splatter vinyl, yet) this 2020 Montreal magnum opus. Led along monstrous boulevards by Rene De La Muerte, The Brains have long earned worldwide accolades for their mongrelization of Psychobilly and Punk. The product of that forced admixture is a frenziedly paced and combustible compound. In each moment, it threatens to burst beyond known dimensions. Upon regaining consciousness, remember to thank Cleopatra.

Recommended: "Satana Tarantula," "Fire," "Hell," "Hellhounds," "El Mariachi de la Muerte," "Come By My Side," "Fight Or Die," "C'mon Let's Do It All Night," "Swing It"

Video: "Satana Tarantula"

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